Percy opened his mouth to interject the question of just why he needed a wife, but Lissy didn’t give him the chance. Instead Percy stirred the sugar in his tea and took a sip as she continued talking, and not taking the bait of their widowed sister.

Ah, yes, then there was the matter of the Adlard name. Percy honestly didn’t feel much kinship for his name, a necessity to propagate the world with offspring to preserve it the way his father did. The one proudly pureblooded family that had fallen to the wayside. Percy had heard the argument enough times from his father. But it was hard to ignore from his sisters’. There was some merit in the fact that they did want their family name to continue on, despite Percy’s tensions with their father. But that look from Lissy…. He couldn’t very well tell her he did want it to dwindle into nothing. Because, really, did he?

“No. But that doesn’t answer the question of why we did to celebrate my birthday in society. Isn’t dragging me to balls all season a way to do so without having to go to such an extreme?” Honestly Percy would be content with a quiet affair, his sisters, Quinn, Mason, and the kids. No attention beyond that. Nice. Simple. Quiet. But Felicity was on a warpath and even he knew he was likely to lose this argument.